


Lilies at the graveyard

by oswin42



Category: Cabin Pressure
Genre: Autism, Death, Douglas has a son in his first marriage, Gen, Grief, OC death, death of a child
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-10-02
Updated: 2015-10-02
Packaged: 2018-04-24 11:26:57
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,091
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/4917784
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/oswin42/pseuds/oswin42
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Douglas had a son in his first marriage, but tragedy struck him and his first wife. A sort of follow up/back story to meltdown.</p><p> </p><p>WARNING: A CHILD DIES IN THIS STORY.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Lilies at the graveyard

**Author's Note:**

> this won't make much sense unless you read meltdown. Thanks to the lovely Linguini for checking my spelling and grammar.

Douglas came home from his work and offered a postcard to his 12 year old son. His son smiled brightly at the card from New York.

Douglas loved to see the smile on his sons face, it made everything worth it.

Dealing with Dylan’s autism wasn’t easy. The communication issues, the problems at school, the meltdowns… Dylan’s autism was diagnosed when he was three years old. Dylan didn’t talk at three, he didn’t even really play with toys. He would stack blocks and sort toy cars by size or color. From diagnosis they went to therapy and special schools. His wife, Alice, quit her job to look after their son and he needed a good job quickly. He dropped out of medical school and, since his brother in law could guarantee him a job as a pilot, became a pilot. Dylan, thanks to the therapy, started to talk. Douglas read his son books. His son loved listening to him reading and he loved the smile on Dylan’s face. There’s something very special about that wide and genuine smile.

As the years passed Douglas moved up in his job, but always reserving plenty of free time he could spent with his son. Dylan learned to read early and loved it (but still preferred his dad to read to him anyway). Then Dylan saw Douglas sketch Alice and soon Dylan learned to draw as well. He was really quite good.

Their son slowly grew up and often life was good. Unless Dylan had a meltdown. Meltdowns were horrible for all of them. Douglas remembered one of the first Dylan had had when Alice wasn’t with them. He’d taken the young boy to the supermarket with him. He had planned to surprise Alice with her favourite meal when she’d come back from her parents. No such luck. The alarm went off and Dylan started screaming. That kind of scream is horrible. It is heartbreaking to hear anyone scream in agony like that, let alone your own child. The older Dylan got, the less he screamed and the quieter his meltdowns got. Douglas still remembers the time that they had gone to a museum with Dylan and had looked for his son for an hour, only to find the boy curled up in a quiet corner. He had been hugging his knees, rocking violently and sobbing. What’s even worse as a parent is that in a moment like those is that you can’t hug your own child.

He remembers it well. He doesn’t want to but he does anyway. It was a week after Dylan’s 12th birthday. He’d gotten Dylan a computer. It hadn’t been cheap but Dylan loved it. That horrible day Douglas came home from a shift and parked his car on the other side of the road. His son came out of the house and ran towards him, eager to tell him something, but he never got to tell it.

“Dad! Dad!” Dylan yelled happily as he came out the door and ran towards him. Then there was suddenly a car and the next moment Dylan was laying on the ground. He was bleeding. The car sped off. The car didn’t matter anymore. Douglas ran to his boy and checked him over.

“Dylan?” He asked “Dylan can you hear me?"

“Dad?” His son asked quietly “My body hurts."

The pained voice was like a knife in Douglas’ gut. He took his son’s wrist in his hand, like he always did when his son was upset. Douglas knew he couldn’t save his son. No one could.

“Everything will be alright,” he lied.

That moment Alice came outside, wondering where her boys were.

“Call an ambulance!” he shouted at her. She saw Dylan lay on the street and Douglas cradling him and went in to do just that.  She came to them a moment later. “They’re on their way” she said quietly.

“Mum?” Dylan asked softly.

“I’m here,” she promised “I’m here."

“Don’t cry."

Alice tried to keep her tears back.

“I love you” Dylan said as he clung onto his mother’s shirt. A moment later his hand went weak and his eyes closed. Douglas looked for a pulse. And tried again. Then started CPR. He knew he couldn’t save his boy but he couldn’t sit there and do nothing. He continued until the ambulance crew dragged him away from his son.

The funeral was three days later. He and Alice dealt differently with Dylan’s death. Alice cried a lot. Douglas didn’t cry until the funeral. 

Alice’s life fell apart. She had taken care of Dylan and had been very involved in the school Dylan went to. She fell into a depression. She’d sit on the couch with a book most days.

Douglas took more and more shifts and started drinking. After a flight he’d get to the hotel bar and get drunk. He had a lot of one night stands in hotels, most of their names he didn’t even remember. Less than six months after their son died, they split up. Alice moved away to some other country, leaving Dylan’s stuff with Douglas. He kept them in two boxes that he hid away.

****  
  
  


Douglas never told Carolyn or Arthur or Martin. Even Helena didn’t know. Until that day Martin had the meltdown.

“Douglas?” Martin asked softly. It had been over a month since Martin had had the meltdown and neither of them had brought the subject up. They were flying back home and Douglas had been quiet.

Douglas looked up “What?"

“You seem distracted. Everything alright?"

“Of course I’m alright."

“You sure?"

“I…” Douglas stopped. Martin knew; he didn’t need to hide it “Tomorrow is the anniversary of the death of…” he stopped and tried to hold back a sob.

“Oh Douglas, I’m sorry.” Martin said with a little panic in his voice. He didn’t want to upset the first officer.

“I’m going to visit his grave tomorrow,” he said very quietly.

“Do you want me to come? For support?"

Douglas was halfway into denying that he needed support when he decided that yes, he would like Martin to come with him.

The next day Martin came to Douglas’ place and together they drove to the graveyard. Douglas had gotten a beautiful bouquet with lilies (Dylan’s favourite, he told Martin).

Martin kept his distance, giving Douglas some time alone. When Douglas walked back to him there were tears on his face. Martin hugged his first officer. They’d never done that before and it seemed inappropriate for them to do, but Douglas appreciated it.


End file.
